


Her New Someone

by kbear



Category: Leverage
Genre: F/M, Light Bondage
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-14
Updated: 2017-01-14
Packaged: 2018-09-17 08:54:24
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,332
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9314438
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kbear/pseuds/kbear
Summary: Something has been bothering Parker since the team moved to Boston.  She's messing up on jobs and Eliot is determined to help her figure out and fix whatever is wrong.





	1. Her New Someone

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first posted story, so if there are tags that should be included please let me know. I hope you enjoy!

“Parker, you can’t keep going off-script! Next time I might not be able to get to you in time and you’ll be the one sittin’ here getting your ribs wrapped up or a bullet hole stitched and I’ll be the one sittin’ there being PISSED!” 

Parker’s head sank down even lower. She knew it was her fault that Eliot got hurt and she hated it. Her eyes glanced up at the rest of the team to gauge their reactions. They were standing around the makeshift infirmary at the new office, watching as Eliot patched himself up following another one of Parker’s mistakes on the job. They did not look happy.

“I know, Eliot, and I’m sor-“ her voice caught and she tried again. “I mean, I don’t – I can’t – I have to – “ She finally gave up trying to come up with something to say under the combined questioning stares of the four people in the world that she cared about and that she had put in danger. Again. “Sorry,” she mumbled and escaped out the door.

Parker slipped out to her closest refuge, the roof, and watched the city as night began to fall and the air started to cool, trying to figure out how to fix herself. Most of the time she didn’t worry about it too much; she knew she was crazy and was mostly ok with that. But she had friends now and she was pretty sure that friends weren’t supposed to accidentally get each other killed. Or caught. But killed was probably worse. 

Her hands wrapped around her waist trying to hold in the icky feelings that were crawling around inside her. Fear. Guilt. Shame. Ugh! How did people LIVE with their stomach in knots? She pulled her knees up and dropped her head down onto them and just tried to breathe through the unfamiliar emotions.

Parker heard the door click open and almost bolted down the fire escape. But she knew it was Eliot coming to check on her, and she knew she’d have to face him sooner or later. So she stayed where she was and waited. 

The warm jacket slipped around her shoulders as Eliot sat down next to her. He watched the sky and the activity below with her in silence for long minutes. “You gotta talk to me Parker,” he said quietly. “Somethin’s been off since we got to Boston and you gotta let me help you figure it out or somethin’s gonna go wrong on a job that we can’t fix.” 

“I know,” she sighed. “I keep messing up and this time you got hurt and maybe next time it’ll be something worse… I know I’ve got to fix it, I just haven’t been able to yet. It’s just really hard being in a new place and not having… I mean, not knowing… umm… I just haven’t figured out how to fix it yet. Here. In Boston.”

Eliot looked confused as he tried to follow Parker’s stranger-than-normal thought processes. “So, you know what the problem is, then?” he asked, hoping that simple questions would yield simple answers.

“Yes.”

“And it wasn’t a problem in LA?”

“No.”

“So what is the problem?”

“Stress.”

He blinked. “Stress? Parker, we haven’t done anything more stressful in Boston than we did in LA. And I know you’re used to living all over the place, so it can’t be the move. What exactly are you stressed about?”

She glanced over at him and then looked quickly away. “It’s not so much that I’m more stressed here, it’s just that my outlet for getting rid of it is in LA. And I haven’t been able to find a new one here yet. So it’s been building up and making me feel all weird and I can’t get rid of it and it makes me mess up and – ”

“Hey, hey hold up there sweetheart,” Eliot interrupted as her voice got more and more hysterical. He knew she was wary about being touched, but he caught her eye and reached his hand out slowly to place it on her arm. “Parker, just calm down. We’ll figure it out, ok? Just relax.” 

Parker’s eyes shifted to look at his hand on her arm and then back to him again. Her eyes twitched slightly in confusion before she let out a huge sigh and looked back out at the city, leaving his hand where it was. 

“So, this ‘outlet’ that you had in LA. I’m guessing it’s not something we can go get and bring here or you would have already, huh?” She shook her head. “Well, we can find you a new stress reliever Parker,” Eliot said easily. “Was it a special building or something that you liked to jump off? If jumping off the top of Boston doesn’t help, I can show you some meditation techniques or…” Eliot stopped as Parker’s face fell and her head dropped back down to her knees. 

“No, Eliot,” she mumbled to her lap. “It’s not some’thing’ it was some’one’.” Her head lifted as she continued, “And no I can’t bring them here and if I can’t find a new ‘someone’ to take care of this for me, I don’t know what I’m going to do. Ok? I don’t know if it’s some kind of addiction or what, but it’s really screwing with me and I can’t stand it much longer!”

Parker could tell that Eliot was starting to get worried. His hand had automatically moved off her arm and slid around to her back and was making soft gentle passes up and down, trying to calm her down. Her eyes twitched again in confusion. She normally didn’t like anyone touching her, but his hands seemed to know how to make her feel safe... After a few moments she gasped. “Eliot – YOU can be my new ‘someone’! It’s perfect! I don’t freak out when you touch me and you’ll always be wherever the team is, so even if we move again it’ll be fine and – ”

“Parker, Parker, hold on! What are you talking about?” Eliot asked, incredibly confused. 

“I’m talking about orgasms!”

OOO~~OOO

Eliot’s mouth dropped open in shock but Parker just continued on excitedly. “You can give me orgasms and get rid of my stress and then I won’t mess up on the jobs anymore and you won’t get hurt. Don’t you see? It’s perfect!” 

Eliot sputtered and pulled away quickly, “No! Parker, what are you talking about? I don’t - You’re not - I’m sorry honey, but I’m not interested in being your boyfriend. We work together and – “

“Ew, I’m not talking about a boyfriend either.” Parker said. “That would be weird and would mean even more feelings and just, no. No sex, just orgasms.”

Eliot paused, not sure exactly how to take that, but trying to stay with Parker’s logic so they could get to the bottom of this. “Ok, back up Parker. Your stress reliever in LA was a person.”

She sighed and he could see her trying to settle in to explain. “Yes, her name was Nina and she was really good at her job.”

“Which was…?”

“Well, she was my therapist a long time ago, but then I started to just pay her to tie me up and give me orgasms. It worked out better for both of us. No more messy emotions in the way.”

Eliot tried to think of a valid response to that. 

“But every time I try to go to a new therapist here or even one of those dominatrix-type places, I can’t make myself trust anybody to touch me and it just… ends bad.” Parker looked frustrated and sad. “I don’t know what to do! I need orgasms to be able to function but I can’t get orgasms if I can’t let somebody touch me.” She looked up at him, her face nervous but hopeful. “That’s why I need you to be my new ‘someone’ and give me orgasms, because you can touch me.”

“Parker, I – “ Eliot didn’t know what to say. This was one of the strangest conversations he’d ever heard of, much less participated in. “Have you tried, you know, umm, doing it yourself?” 

Parker rolled her eyes. “Of course I have silly, it doesn’t work. I don’t know why it doesn’t work, but unless I’m tied down, it doesn’t work. And even if I tie myself down, I know I can still get loose and it doesn’t work. It’s weird, I’m weird, but that’s nothing new.” She turned to look at him full in the face, her features as serious as he’d ever seen them. “Please, Eliot. Will you help me?”

He felt himself softening toward her crazy request. The little thief who didn’t trust anybody to touch her was asking him to be her new ‘someone’ to trust. To take care of her. To protect her and the team. How could he say no?


	2. The Whats and Whys

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Parker explains to Eliot what she needs.

“Parker, I still don’t know about this,” Eliot said reluctantly as she hopped up onto his bed and opened her duffle bag. “I’ve got lots of experience with both sides of restraints, and sure I’ve played around with them some in the bedroom before, but this…”

Parker looked at him with a little frown of confusion. “What’s wrong? Are you worried you can’t give me an orgasm? ‘Cause I can talk you through it if you’re not sure what to do. I kinda thought you’d already know how, but it’s fine if –“

“No, Parker,” Eliot interrupted trying hard not to burst into laughter while keeping control of the conversation. “I know what to do, ok? I meant that it seems strange to be doing something so… intimate… but without any feelings involved. And adding restraints into the mix feels wrong. Like I’m taking advantage of you or something.”

“Oh. Well, maybe just look at it like a job. Or a favor? I don’t know. It doesn’t need to be complicated, Eliot.” She continued pulling rope and leather cuffs and vibrators out of the bag, sorting the growing pile in front of her.

Eliot leaned over and slowly swept the bag and the pile away and moved to sit on the bed facing Parker. He reached slowly to take her fidgeting hands in his and tried to get her to look at him. “Parker, it’s not a job and it’s not a favor. I’m your friend and I want to help you. I’m… honored that you would trust me with something like this. But I have to understand what you need and maybe a little bit of why you need it so I can do that.” 

Her eyes continued to flicker up at him and then down again, but she took a long shuddering breath and huffed out, “Fine. But I’m telling you, it’s not that complicated. Nina figured out a long time ago that orgasms can help release a lot of extra energy and focus a mind back on task. Which sounded like something that would be really good for somebody like me. But to have an orgasm you have to make it through all the buildup part first which is really hard because it’s frustrating and my brain always gets in the way and all I’m thinking about is trying to get away from the frustrating parts. I’m a thief – a really really good thief – and I don’t get caught. Nobody can make me stay anywhere I don’t wanna be… not even me…” She shifted a little bit and continued on. “Anyway, I couldn’t make myself stay through the buildup part to get to the release part. So I finally told Nina to try tying me down because I really wanted to get to the release part. And it worked. And now, when I start losing my focus or get too emotion-y, an orgasm can help release all that and get me back to normal. Or as normal as I can be anyway.” She flicked her eyes up at him again, her hands still in his.

Eliot looked at her in silence, slightly stunned at her self-awareness and the solution that she had come up with to manage it. He knew the whole team considered her somewhat child-like and innocent, but behind her story he could see the struggle that it took to achieve that. She used that persona to live in the moment and ignore anything else that may have happened in her past. It was her coping mechanism and it had been thrown off by the loss of her ‘someone’ that she could trust.

“And Nina just happened to live in LA when you settled down to one location?” Eliot asked, curious.

“No... when I was traveling all over the place, it was easy to drop in every once in awhile to get her to fix me, but when we set up offices in LA I paid her a bunch of money to move there. But now she’s married – and rich – and she doesn’t want to move again and I can’t drop everything in the middle of a job and fly across the country to get her to fix me all the time. So I was trying to find somebody here, but… I’m too messed up. I can’t let them touch me, so it doesn’t work.” 

She frowned and looked down at her hands again. His thumbs were rubbing gentle circles on the backs of her hands. She looked up at him again, holding his gaze, her eyes almost begging. “Please Eliot? I know I’m weird and annoying and I got you hurt, but I promise it helps…” Parker trailed off, looking desperately for some sign or signal that she could stop talking, that he had heard all he needed to and she could stop thinking about it now. 

Eliot spoke quietly and calmly, his mouth turning up slightly in reassurance. “It’s gonna be fine sweetheart. You’re gonna be fine.” He reached up slowly and cupped her face and her head tilted toward his hand, her eyes dropping closed. 

She sniffed once and a single tear snuck out as she sighed in relief. “Thank you, Eliot.”

OOO~~OOO

Eliot had kicked her out of his bedroom so he could set up in private and have a few minutes to make some kind of a plan. He sent her to the kitchen for some water bottles and told her to wait for him in the living room. He could hear her tapping and fidgeting as she paced around, her anxiety and frustration evident. 

He understood her better now and while her request was still odd, it made sense in her own convoluted way. Eliot WAS honored that she trusted him enough for something like this. And he would do his best to make sure she was safe and never felt betrayed in any way by the trust she had given him. 

Ideally he would have liked a few days to come to terms with it and plan out the “right” scenario for their first encounter. But the mistake on the job today and the agitation she’d been displaying for the last couple of weeks, not to mention the stress of going through it all with him verbally tonight, meant that she needed relief sooner rather than later. And she was right, it didn’t have to be complicated. 

This time they’d keep it simple and straightforward. A fix for a problem. But next time… He grinned. They’d have a talk before next time. It could be fun. And maybe if he could show her it could be fun, it wouldn’t be such a source of anxiety for her. But for now, he gathered up the gear he wanted to use from the pile she had brought with them and started tying knots.

OOO~~OOO

Parker prowled around the living room and the kitchen, trying desperately to distract herself from everything that had been said and whatever might be happening in the bedroom. She had suggested they come to Eliot’s place after she grabbed her gear from her warehouse because she knew that his place would have more creature comforts than hers. Like a bed big enough for two. And a couch. And a kitchen. And those things might be important to him at some point. 

Tap-tap-tap. Sigh. She’d gotten the water bottles. What could be taking so long? She didn’t know why she couldn’t rig the bed, she knew how. Tap-tap-tap. And it was her gear anyway. Maybe he was having trouble figuring it out. Sigh. No, Eliot knew rigging better than most people. Not as good as her of course, but better than most. He could figure it out. 

Her arms wrapped around her middle again. She almost whimpered. It had been years since she’d had to think or talk about the whats and whys behind her needs. And now it was all so fresh and frustrating and scary. She thought Eliot had understood. At least he didn’t laugh at her or tell her she was nuts and to go away. And his fingers had felt so good on her hands. On her cheek. Not that she needed those things of course, but it made her believe that maybe her body would let her trust him enough to make this work. And she really needed it to work.

Eliot appeared from the hallway and they both stopped to look at each other. He reached a hand out to her, giving her the choice to come with him or walk away. But she knew there was no changing her mind. She was ready and willing and SO grateful that he was going to help her. And she knew he would, no matter what. Helping her, protecting her, it’s what he did. Her hand slipped into his and they started down the hallway together.


	3. Epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Parker & Eliot work out a system.

*Two months later*

“Parker, what the hell, girl?” Hardison muttered as she knocked over the popcorn for the third time. She’d been twitchy all day and was finding it really hard to get into the team’s movie night routine. 

“Sorry, Hardison. I’ll get it.” Parker knelt to scoop up the scattered popcorn and took off to the kitchen to pop a new bowl. Again. She sighed as she waited for the microwave to do its’ thing and tapped her way around the countertops. She looked up as Eliot came into the kitchen. Watched him watching her. 

“Kind of a tough job this week, huh?” Eliot broached lightly. 

“Yeah, the ones with kids usually are. But we got the guy, so that’s good I guess.” Parker replied, also nonchalantly.

“You seem a little off tonight, you doing ok?” Eliot stared at her, searching, asking if he could help.

“Yeah, um… I’m ok, just… antsy I guess,” she answered. Parker looked at him with a sparkle in her eye and a quick grin.

“Hmm… I see,” he said with a return grin.

The microwave went off and she moved over to retrieve the popcorn. He moved past her toward the refrigerator and leaned over to murmur in her ear, “My place, 2am,” and kept going as if he hadn’t said anything. He pulled a beer out of the fridge and they both went back to settle in for the movie. 

Later that night, Eliot sat reading a book when he heard the window open and Parker slide into the room. He smiled as he stood and held out his hand waiting, as he always did, for her to come to him and re-establish that precious trust that they both treasured. 

She squeezed his hand in gratitude, knowing that tomorrow she’d be able to breathe easier and focus on being her again.

 

*Six months later*

“Dammit Parker!” Eliot exclaimed as he fought his way across the room to her. “That’s the second time this week!”

“Yeah, yeah. Your place, 2am. I’ll be there, just get us out of here, please?”

He grabbed her hand and led her out of the building, grinning and shaking his head.


End file.
